Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976): An Introduction

An introduction to the thought of the greatest thinker in the Western tradition since Plato.  These notes begin with his early use of and departure from Husserlian phenomenology. Next, the notes cover Heidegger's main philosophical work, Being and Time. Finally, the notes explore Heidegger's later writings, after the "Turn" (die Kehre), exploring the themes of the Event of Appropriation (das Ereignis),  Dwelling, the Four-fold, Technology and the possibility of the Work of Art founding an "Other Beginning".

Heidegger's Being and Time (1927): An Introduction

Notes on Heidegger's first and most influential work, Being and Time. The necessity of once against asking the question of the meaning of Being is discussed; the necessity of addressing this question by means of the one being who's Being is an issue for it: Dasein; the preparatory fundamental analysis of Dasein as Being-in-the-World in Division I; Being-towards-Death, Temporality and Historicality are all discussed.

Martin Heidegger on Modern Science

Detailed lecture notes on Heidegger's critique of modern science. The lecture focuses on how Heidegger understands the potential and limits of science within four separate works: Being and Time, "On the Essence of Truth", "Modern Science, Metaphysics and Mathematics" and Contributions to Philosophy (Sections 75-80).

Martin Heidegger and the Phenomenology of Time

Lecture slides for a course on "Time and Narrative in Prose Fiction" (2020) -- covering Heidegger's early intellectual journey toward the phenomenology, a basic introduction to the principles of phenomenology, and Heidegger's approach to phenomenology as ontology in Being and Time.

Heiddeger on the Being of Truth: "On the Essence of Truth"

Detailed notes on Heidegger's analysis of essence of truth. Heidegger shows how the ordinary sense of truth as accordance of a statement with a pre-existing state of affairs assumes a comportment or relatedness of thing and knower as its "inner possibility". This in turn depends upon a certain freedom -- a "letting beings be" -- as the ground of this comportment. Finally, the letting beings be that allows an open region of beings to arise depends equally upon a concealment, or "untruth". Heidegger's essay ends with a reflection on the role of philosophy as a resolute openness that does not relinquish the concealment essential to truth as such.

Heiddeger's Aesthetics: "The Origin of the Work of Art"

Detailed notes on Heidegger's analysis of the origin of the work of art. These notes focus on the question of the extent to which art can operate as a site of the originary arising of truth -- as opposed to being merely a representation of pre-existing things.

Heiddeger's Deconstruction of Plato: "Plato's Doctrine of Truth"

Detailed notes on Heidegger's deconstruction of Plato.  Heidegger's point of departure is an analysis of the four-fold movement described in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave".  The upshot of Heidegger's deconstruction is to show that a latent or "unsaid" doctrine of truth (a doctrine of truth as aletheia, tied to concealment) resides within the manifest position of Plato in terms of truth as homoiosis tied to the idea.

On Heiddeger's "The Question Concerning Technology"

Detailed notes on Heidegger's analysis of the essence of technology as das Gestell (Enframing), wherein beings arise as a "standing reserve" of interchangeable stock on call. Questions of how this analysis and the hope of a "saving power" in art can be understood in today's context of digital data technologies and Artificial Intelligence are explored.

Works on the List of the 101 Greatest Books

Being and Time (1927)

Works on the List of the 1001 Great Books

The Phenomenology of Religious Life (1921)

Phenomenological Readings of Aristotle (1922)

Plato's Sophist (1925)

"What is Metaphysics" (1929)

Basic Problems of Phenomenology (1929)

Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929)

"On the Essence of Truth" (1930)

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1930)

"Plato's Doctrine of Truth" (1930)

"The Origin of the Work of Art" (1936)

Contributions to Philosophy: Of the Event (1938)

Introduction to Metaphysics (1938)

Parmenides (1942)

The End of Philosophy (1942)

Nietzsche (4 Volumes) (1946)

Off the Beaten Track (1950)

The Question Concerning Technology (1954)

Early Greek Thinking (1954)

What is Called Thinking? (1954)

Poetry, Language, Thought (1954)

Identity and Difference (1957)

On the Way to Language (1959)

Pathmarks (1967)

“Martin Heidegger” entry at Wikipedia

“Martin Heidegger” entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

"Phenomenology" entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

"Hermeneutics" entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

“Martin Heidegger” entry at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy